Future course for my CJ6 restoration

Visions of Camel Trophy

Adventure, peril, exploration, struggle, survival, odyssey...   these words conjure up images from my childhood.  

  Images I first saw while flipping the pages of various magazines throughout the 80s.  Mythical, yellow, 4WD vehicles always deep in the middle of some far away jungle.  Each one, caught frozen on a magazine page in a moment of action.  Be it a hazardous water-crossing, being winched out of a deep ravine, teetering over a makeshift bridge or floating across a river on a native built raft.  These scenes all come from the terriffic jungle treks of various contestants competing in the Camel Trophy of the 1980s and 90s.

  Range Rovers were the vehicles of choice.  But while researching some information on the Internet I stumbled across some Camel Trophy info I did not know.  The vehicles used in the very first Camel Trophy ( Transamazonica 1980 )were not Range Rovers.  The three vehicles were Jeep CJ5s.  Actually they were not Jeeps from Toldeo, Ohio.  They were Ford U-50's which are Brazilian Jeeps built under licsence by Ford of Brazil.

Several sources on the Internet refer to them as CJ6s but as far as I can tell from pictures they were Brazilian CJ5s.  Here are some of the pictures I have been able to scrounge up.

Blasts from the Past !

 Ever seen a Pre-CJ6 ??

I was browsing around the 'net and stumbled across g503.com and some interesting pictures.  While flipping through some pics of some Ford and Willys MBs I came across this odd picture that has a striking resemblance to a CJ-6.  I have nick-named them "Pre-CJ6's"

Then I found a link to several pictures of these "stretched" MB Jeeps. 
Below are the best of the ones I found.

Hardtop and rollbar removed with a little helper...

For the most part, I was able to remove all the nuts and bolts that held the Meyers CJ6 hardtop together without too much trouble.  I did have to use my new 4 1/2" grinder from Harbor Freight to remove the heads of a handful of bolts that had rusted to the point where there were no flats to put a wrench on.  Once all the fastners were completely removed, Amy helped me remove the sides and lift off the roof.

Parked in the garage, finally....

Official Tear-Down  - Day 1

I was able to push "Red" into the garage for the first time last week.   Our yard shed was finally delivered and I was able to move out alot of items that were cluttering up the space.

I guess this is officially Day One of the tear-down, Wwwwwoooo-hhoooOO!

Treasure Trove

A Jeep time-capsule arrives at my door.

The first time I spoke with Mr. Bob (the original owner of 'Red) he mentioned a "folder full of papers" that he gave to the P.O. (Previous owner) that held the owners manual, all of the service records, dealership papers, Warn O.D. papers and schematics to all the items he added in the late '60s and early 70's.  When my brother-in-law, Eric, picked up the CJ-6 the P.O. forgot to give this folder to him.  Well, a couple of months later the folder has arrived!!!    
   
Here is a picture of most of the stuff:

I will be updating soon with a detailed description of everything I received.  

See ya soon, Tim D

Lil' Rusty Red found with Google Maps - Street View

A Glimpse of Lil' Rusty Red's old spot.

Ever checked out Google Maps ?  Have you played around with their "new" Street View mode ?   You can waste hours of your life looking around different cities.  I don't remember what gave me the idea to look for Lil Rusty Red, but I thought there might be a good chance I could find the ol' Jeep.  Whoa, was I surprised when I found it!

1972 CJ6 on eBay $10,000, now its $8,500...

One-owner CJ-6 with only 14,000 original miles.  Looks pretty clean and check out those unique tail-light guards.  We will have to see what it ends up going for.

Original owner of L.R.R found !

Ever looked at your Jeep and wished you could talk to the person

that originally purchased your Jeep? I had those thoughts when I was a kid working

on my '67 Mustang GT coupe.

Fast-forward twenty-three years later...

The Walk-around

  Last weekend the weather was beautiful and I had the opportunity to take some pictures of the Jeep.    Here is the first pic.

  
I am so ready to start taking the top off but there is not enough room in the garage to start the teardown....yet.  My main priority right now is to get our shed built that will house the Grizzly, lawnmower, etc and the garage will be ready for the Jeep to roll in.  
Click below for the rest of the pics.

Axle Identification

From my earliest posts at EarlyCJ5.com I learned that my Jeep came from the factory with a Dana 27A front axle and a Dana 44 rear. After reading hundreds of archived posts I haveseen a trend of owners saying that one of the "best" or "ideal" setups for a Jeep is 4.88:1 gears and a OverDrive.

I climbed under the Lil' Rusty Red armed with a toothbrush and a cup of kerosene to aid me in removing the thick layer of crud that has accumulated on the axles and pretty much everything that is located under the Jeep (except the underside of the tub).

I scrubbed through the years of accumulated oil, grease and debris and found both the front and the rear axle tags as well as the USE LIMITED SLIP DIFF LUBE ONLY tag.



I was excited when I first read 4.88 on the front tag!! When I got to the rear I was confused when it said 4.89...

I went back inside and scoured the web for a definitive guide on Dana axle tags. That's when I found out that the important numbers are the ones separated by the dash (i.e. 39-8 or 44-9)

To find the axle ratio you simply divide the first number by the second number and you get the ration. ( 39 / 8 = 4.875 or 44 / 9 = 4.88)

EarlyCJ5.com has cool way to confirm what gears you have. It is located at the bottom of the page at this link.

I can't wait to try this out.

See ya soon, Tim

From Russia, with Love...

Well, I am happy to say that Lil' Rusty Red has finally arrived.

After lunch, my wife received a call from Alex, the Russian man who is delivering my Jeep, he said that he would be dropping it off between 5:00 - 8:00 pm. Alex's accent was so heavy my wife thought it was a joke. Once he was closer he called to get our address for his GPS. 

I noticed a few drops of rain hitting the patio. By the time he got close the storm arrived in full force! I drove and met him a few minutes from the house and told him to unload it and I would drive it home with my wife close behind in the '06 Mustang. He kept saying, "Good drive, good drive!" while making a gesture like turning a key in the ignition. I wish i had a picture of that!

He was right. The Jeep cranked up fine and I drove it home with little problem.

The aftermarket wipers are less than desirable and the windshield was all fogged up. I noticed a good amount of play in the steering. The brakes are hard but do stop the Jeep.

It didn't matter to Agnes, she was excited to see it!

Here are a few pictures of it on the way home.

All the way from Seattle

1967 Jeep CJ6 $2600 Kenmore
Thats what the ad on Craigslist read when I stumbled upon it late one night. The CJ6 I was looking for! It had the V6, it had a hardtop and the floorboards were not rusted through. It was rough but I was looking for something that I could work on. But, where is Kenmore?? Damn, all the way in Washington state. Now most people would never consider purchasing a vehicle that far away.

For shitzengiggles I looked up where Kenmore, WA was... low and behold it was just a 

few minutes North up the road from where my sister lives now. 

That's when I started hatching my plan. 

First, I now had to clear it with them to allow "Lil' Rusty Red" to take roost at their house until I could arrange for it to be picked-up by a transport company. After they graciously agreed (with trepidations I am sure ) I then burdened them with going on a quest to find said heep err, uh I mean Jeep, with instructions to take many pictures. Eric, my sister's husband, did not let me down. He took pictures of everything! It was almost like I was there except for the musty smell that old cars all share.

After some wheeling and dealing over the phone the owner and I came up with a price that made us both satisfied. Paula and Eric went back days later and secured the deal and drove L.R.R (Lil' Rusty Red) back to their house.She  followed Eric closely and they made it home without incident.

After a delay with the transport company the Jeep was finally picked up on Monday the 10th of August. It is somewhere between Seattle and Munford, TN.

But I know one thing... none of this would have been possible without the help of Eric, Paula and Patrick. Thank you for your help!!

Welcome to Jeep-Jitsu !

What the heck is Jeep-Jitsu ?!
It is your window into the smash-mouth, knock-down, drag-out fight bewteen me (Tim "L.B." Duncan) and a 1967 Jeep CJ-6 ("Lil' Rusty Red") that I am attempting to beat back into shape. Here is how the Jeep looked when I stumbled across it on the 'Net.

Being this is the first time I have ever done a vehicle restoration I am anticipating many obstacles that will attempt to push my patience, strength and sanity to the breaking point. But, I have faith that my plan of slow and steady progress will overcome many of the hardships I will face but only time will tell.